Breakfast in bed

it's saturday morning at around 11. mom is ironing more of marlon's shirts in the living room when he passes her en route to the bedroom -- with a glass of milk, a plate of toast and a smidgen of lime marmalade for me, his slumbering wife.

mom to marlon: "aba ano 'yan, service deluxe?! gisingin mo na nga iyan, at tuturuan ko siyang mamalancha!"

Cheap thrills

after dealing with an at-times-infuriatingly finicky mother during the week, i was chuffed to have finally hit upon a weekend activity that my mom loved: a little india afternoon!

i thought she would be bored going to little india again after we had already done a jaggi's lunch on racecourse roud last saturday, along with a stop at the touristy little india arcade. but no, i totally forgot about the powers of mustafa!

she went wild over the selection of bangles, just like i did on my first visit to mustafa (and to singapore) four years ago. i forgot how much alike we can be at times, and this was a great reminder. we spent close to an hour hunting through the racks of bangles, offering suggestions to each other and trying on this and that bunch, as marlon whiled away his time in the bollywood dvd section. he came away with a boxed dvd of om shanti om, shah rukh khan's biggest blockbuster and personally recommended by my cousin muniya. looks like next saturday night will be bollywood night for the now-nagtitipid paul-plazos.

my mom cried "iwan mo na ako dito ng buong maghapon!" when she saw the mustafa basement full of textiles and sari material. marlon quipped, "okay, i'll just go watch hellboy and come back for you guys in two hours."

now she is cooing over her bangle (and pashmina) booty in the guest bedroom, much like i do with my own bargain finds, and is an extremely good mood. nice to see her that way, and nice to remember that i am still my mother's daughter.

Lady of the house

it's midway through my mom's visit, and the house is cleaner than it's ever been.

consider: all my clothes are folded, which, if you know the usual state of the walk-in closet, is a blooming miracle. all of marlon's polos have been ironed and arranged from left to right by color, as well as in the order of my mom's tastes. "ito yung mga gusto ko," she said, pointing to the neatly pressed left side of the closet. "ito naman yung mga mukhang mamang-mama,"she said, turning up her nose and pointing to the right side, where the polos were not quite as wrinkle-free. 

the miniature payatas of grocery plastics we reuse as garbage bags have been folded into a single paper bag, the ripped ones thrown away. the bed is immaculately made every day, the cosmetics on my dresser lined up in neat rows. there are fresh rolls of toilet paper in both toilets and no dirty dishes in the sink at the end of a long workday. 

in fairness naman to us, we cook her nice dinners. it's nice to see my mom liking what marlon and i cook, and sharing the secrets of jamie oliver with her.

as my mom washed the dinner dishes this evening, marlon murmured "there's a new standard for the woman of the house," hugging me to soften his giant, none-too-subtle hint. 

"excuse me noh! she's had years of practice!" i protested. 

but it really is amazing. moms -- you gotta love them.

My first pitch

the biggest challenge of my first three weeks here at bda was learning how to craft a proposal, or pitch. and not just any pitch -- a galloping 96-slide powerpoint presentation on a full branding campaign for a completely new channel.

it was mind-blowing. at first i struggled to grasp the fact that james, the creative director, or lilian, the boss lady, weren't going to approve or disapprove my ideas. they just didn't say anything!!! kaloka!!!! then, when i figured out that silence meant that i should forge ahead in the same direction, i fought to overhaul my "creative diarrhea" style -- i vomit dozens upon dozens of options, you choose one -- in favor of the "you ought to know best, so just give us one good one" style that seems to work around here. and THEN i had to wrap my head around the fact that none of them intended to muck around with my ideas. ownership and responsibility were big lessons for me.

but the mind-boost! feeling ko maiiyak ako sa ganda when i read all the pitch presentations from our sydney office. i never thought i would ever be so inspired by a powerpoint, and wondered how i could ever conceptualize and write so clearly. (ganyan din ako when i first saw a promax showreel and charlie and ayee's enca plugs on my first day in gma.) and i really had to constantly plow through all my "am i doing this wrong? could this be better? is this good enough?" or i would have frozen up completely.

by friday last week, the powerpoint became so unwieldy with all its little parts and pieces that james had to keep kicking my ass just to make sure i had everything in place. (kakabilib siya grabe. hindi napipikon.) swimming in my gargantuan soup of bugs, straps, junction breaks, mockups, endpages and idents, i was forcibly reminds of my first days at gma when i had no idea what the difference between a rider and a bumper was, and wondered how the hell i was going to learn all the jargon. (answer: by osmosis, almost naturally.)

this resulted in my latest overtime ever in singapore... 8:30 p.m. isang malaking HA. HA. HA. overtime na raw ba yon?! flashback to countless overnights and sleeping under my desk at gma. apparently, yes. in fact, it was considered so bad that i was entitled to a glass (or two) of red wine while working. marlon also picked me up from the office and met the team, which was nice.

so imagine how i felt today when james texted me at 5pm.

"just got out from presentation. they loved it."

truly awesome.

i actually don't know if we're going to win it, since pitch period ends wednesday, but let me just hug this happy feeling to myself for a while.

and maybe have some more of that red wine. :-)

Update

isn't it funny how i'm quietest -- blogwise -- when i'm happiest?

just a quick update to relay the following bits of information:

i love what i'm doing at work. i love getting to know the people i work with, and finding much to like (and admire) about them. i love the mindboost i'm getting on a daily basis, and doing so many things for the first time -- crafting a pitch, brainstorming by myself (vs with a partner, like i used to do at gma), taking ownership of a project, going home early (before 7!), even having red wine at the office during the one time i had to stay past eight. love love love it.

my mom and sister came down from KL on friday night, and we had a fantastic touristy weekend -- little india, the night safari, orchard road, jumbo. i think marlon was a little shell-shocked with how much we shop/window shop. i have really missed spending quality girly time with my family! now my sister is back in KL and my mom's staying till next monday. i love having her here -- although she DID try to get me and marlon into bed at 9:30 p.m., saying, in a very mommy-ish way, "matulog na kayo, may pasok pa kayo bukas." hahaha.

i'm flying home to manila with my mom next monday to give a track (a.k.a. career) talk to jonathan's comm 100 class, and i'm totally excited to tell people what i do for a living! oh and to get my cheap fix of manila salon services! yay!

happiness all around :-)

Burning the midnight oil

magpo-propose ako ng bagong segment for cinemax.

it shall be called... chizMAX!

puro kabaklaan!

i probably should not be brainstorming past midnight.